Essex Police under fire over M11 cash camera

SHOCKING STATISTICS revealed under the Freedom of Information act have shown crashes at a fixed speed camera site on the M11 have almost doubled since the device was installed nine years ago.

The camera, situated between Junctions 5 and 4 on the soutbound carriageway, dishes out 9,000 speeding tickets a year, with an estimated revenue of around £500,000.

Essex Police are now under fire from road safety campaigners, who have accused the force of cashing in on the revenue, despite knowing the camera was linked to an increase in accidents.

Speaking to the Telegraph newspaper, Paul Pearson, of motoring website penaltychargenotice.co.uk, said: "No wonder they haven't removed the camera that's causing these accidents. It's just raising too much money and they clearly want to keep it there."

New data, recently revealed, showed in the five years before the camera was installed, there were 13 accidents and 14 casualties in the area. In the following five years, the number of accidents rose to 16 and casualties to 24.

A spokesman for Essex Police denied the camera was causing crashes. He told the Telegraph it was not being kept for revenue reasons and that there were no plans to remove it.

"Cameras do not cause collisions: poor driving does," said the spokesman.